麻豆中文字幕丨欧美一级免费在线观看丨国产成人无码av在线播放无广告丨国产第一毛片丨国产视频观看丨七妺福利精品导航大全丨国产亚洲精品自在久久vr丨国产成人在线看丨国产超碰人人模人人爽人人喊丨欧美色图激情小说丨欧美中文字幕在线播放丨老少交欧美另类丨色香蕉在线丨美女大黄网站丨蜜臀av性久久久久蜜臀aⅴ麻豆丨欧美亚洲国产精品久久蜜芽直播丨久久99日韩国产精品久久99丨亚洲黄色免费看丨极品少妇xxx丨国产美女极度色诱视频www

Australian Outback farmers facing water shortages after record low rainfall

Source: Xinhua| 2019-05-02 11:26:29|Editor: Shi Yinglun
Video PlayerClose

CANBERRA, May 2 (Xinhua) -- Parts of Australia's Northern Territory (NT) are on the brink of running out of water after the driest wet season in decades.

The NT, home to much of the Australian Outback, experienced its driest wet season in 27 years between October and April, with rainfall 34 percent lower than average, and the hottest season in recorded history with maximum daytime temperatures 2.5 degrees centigrade above the long-term average.

"It was really extreme, it was a very unusual wet season," Nick Loveday, a Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) forecaster, told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) on Thursday.

The Darwin River Dam, which supplies water to the NT's capital city, is at 75 percent capacity, down from 98 percent at the start of May 2018.

The situation is significantly worse in rural Darwin where aquifers, underground stores of water retrieved via wells, could run dry before the end of the dry season.

"Under a normal water-use scenario, there's going to be unprecedented declines in the aquifer levels, so that being the case, there will be water supplies drop out," Des Yin Foo, the NT's director of water assessment, said.

"It's a pretty serious situation," Foo said.

"It's unlikely that farmers in Darwin's rural area can go about their business as usual," Foo said.

"At this point in time the message should be to expect to reduce your water use, and for producers to expect possibly a reduced harvest this year," Foo added.

Simon Smith, president of the NT Farmers Association, has previously expressed concerns about aquifer levels and is now calling for households and farmers to work together to reduce water usage.

"At the moment, it's seen as this blind right that you can pump out as much water as we want, and that's wrong, and people need to understand the consequences of that," he said.

TOP STORIES
EDITOR’S CHOICE
MOST VIEWED
EXPLORE XINHUANET
010020070750000000000000011100001380289091